Dear Members,
Yesterday’s statement from the club board was one of the most unusual we’ve ever seen from a professional football club. Unfortunately, there is too much at stake for us all not to take it seriously.
The first issue worth considering is why would the owner behave this way at a crucial stage of a takeover deal? The answer probably lies in due diligence itself. Teams of lawyers and accountants are currently going through Pools’ books with a fine-toothed comb and what they find will have an impact on the final price of the club. If the deal collapses many will assume that it was because something unexpected was discovered unless some of the mud being thrown at the potential buyer sticks.
Fans have to decide if they trust Raj Singh, and what he says about the potential buyer, in these circumstances. During the previous takeover attempts HUST was wrongly accused of breaches of NDAs and not having funds – this looks like more of the same old tricks to us.
Next comes the potential buyer. If that potential buyer is Shelley Hammond, as many are suggesting, then we know her well. She was in the consortium alongside HUST for both attempted takeovers last year and was energetic, resourceful, supportive, and full of ideas throughout. Her passion for Pools, commitment to uniting supporters by involving them in running their club, and love of the town all shone through. As far as personal wealth goes, we have no idea about Shelley other than she seems to have done alright. As far as access to legitimate, substantial funds goes we’re very confident that she has what is needed to buy Pools and further funds to take us forward. She is certainly ambitious.
It’s worth adding that although Shelley knows that we have a good sum of money available to invest in Pools she hasn’t asked us about the possibility of investing in any current deal. Surely anybody short of funding would ask a previous partner to help?
If you need another opinion, independent of HUST, on the potential buyer have a look at Jeff Stelling’s reasons for resigning as club president.
Finally, we should look at the quite remarkable idea of a vote for fans to decide whether to accept funding from a multi-millionaire who already owns the club. This is nothing more than a transparent attempt to blackmail fans and divide them at a crucial time. We’re being told to say we love Raj or he’ll stop funding the club. It’s hard to understand how any Pools fan can defend him behaving that way.
If the vote goes ahead, and that’s a huge if, how can it be seen as fair? Only fans who bought a season ticket for the last two years can vote – what about the poorer fans, the exiles, fans who work variable shifts, and those suffering ill-health who can’t get to every game? How many of the South East Poolies who do so much fund raising and passionately support Pools at away games down south have season tickets? The only detail we can be sure about so far confirms that the process will once again create a hierarchy of good and bad fans, something which is never healthy.
It also looks like the vote won’t be conducted independently. The club owned by Raj will send the emails and then count the votes to see if the fans back Raj. It’s the sort of arrangement that could easily lead to a 110% vote in favour of the man who organised the vote!
To sum up – we don’t trust Raj, from bitter experience we know not to. We think there is a very credible buyer with the funds that the club needs who can be trusted. The ‘supporters’ vote is just a stunt and another step towards making the club we love into a laughing stock. Let’s see further details and find out if it actually goes ahead before deciding on how to handle it.
These are difficult, turbulent times and all Poolies are finding the current chaos stressful. However, the club statement does say that they’ll continue to try to conclude a deal. That would be excellent news for us all, let’s hope it happens soon.
Never say die!
The HUST Board